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Onboard non-persistent virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) machines

Windows Defender ATP supports non-persistent VDI session onboarding. There might be associated challenges when onboarding VDIs. The following are typical challenges for this scenario:

Instant early onboarding of a short living session

A session should be onboarded to Windows Defender ATP prior to the actual provisioning.

Machine name persistence

The machine names are typically reused for new sessions. One may ask to have them as a single machine entry while others may prefer to have multiple entries per machine name.

You can onboard VDI machines using a single entry or multiple entries for each machine. The following steps will guide you through onboarding VDI machines and will highlight steps for single and multiple entries.

Warning

For environments where there are low resource configurations, the VDI boot proceedure might slow the Windows Defender ATP sensor onboarding.

Open the VDI configuration package .zip file (WindowsDefenderATPOnboardingPackage.zip) that you downloaded from the service onboarding wizard. You can also get the package from the Windows Defender ATP portal:

Copy the extracted files from the .zip into golden/master image under the path C:\WINDOWS\System32\GroupPolicy\Machine\Scripts\Startup. You should have a folder called WindowsDefenderATPOnboardingPackage containing the file WindowsDefenderATPOnboardingScript.cmd.

Note

If you don't see the C:\WINDOWS\System32\GroupPolicy\Machine\Scripts\Startup folder, it might be hidden. You'll need to choose the Show hidden files and folders option from file explorer.

The following step is only applicable if you're implementing a single entry for each machine: For single entry for each machine:
a. From the WindowsDefenderATPOnboardingPackage, copy the Onboard-NonPersistentMachine.ps1 file to golden/master image to the path C:\WINDOWS\System32\GroupPolicy\Machine\Scripts\Startup.

Note

If you don't see the C:\WINDOWS\System32\GroupPolicy\Machine\Scripts\Startup folder, it might be hidden. You'll need to choose the Show hidden files and folders option from file explorer.

Open a Local Group Policy Editor window and navigate to Computer Configuration > Windows Settings > Scripts > Startup.

Depending on the method you'd like to implement, follow the appropriate steps: For single entry for each machine:
Select the PowerShell Scripts tab, then click Add (Windows Explorer will open directly in the path where you copied the onboarding script earlier). Navigate to onboarding PowerShell script Onboard-NonPersistentMachine.ps1.

For multiple entries for each machine:
Select the Scripts tab, then click Add (Windows Explorer will open directly in the path where you copied the onboarding script earlier). Navigate to the onboarding bash script WindowsDefenderATPOnboardingScript.cmd.

Test your solution:

a. Create a pool with one machine.
b. Logon to machine.
c. Logoff from machine.
d. Logon to machine with another user.
e. For single entry for each machine: Check only one entry in the Windows Defender ATP portal.For multiple entries for each machine: Check multiple entries in the Windows Defender ATP portal.

Click Machines list on the Navigation pane.

Use the search function by entering the machine name and select Machine as search type.

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